SPF Record Guidelines for JaguarPC Hosted Domains

[lloyd_borrett]

G'day there,

Some of my users are having problems with email sent from their JaguarPC hosted domains not getting through to some of their clients.

My investigation has found that some anti-spam filters being implemented by companies reject email from domains without SPF records.

Now my understanding of all of this DNS stuff is not brilliant. When I started to look into what a SPF record is and what infomation is needed to set one up properly, I quickly realised I was out of my depth.

Would it be possible for JaguarPC to publish some guidelines as to the process we should all use to put a proper SPF record in place? Or maybe someone in these forums knows what is required?

Such a process should tell us how to go about getting the details we will need, and what proper SPF records should look like for the standard types of JaguarPC hosted domains.

In other words, enough information such that we can all confidently go about the process of getting SPF records in place for the domains we have hosted with JaguarPC.

Best Regards, Lloyd Borrett.

[JPC-Les]

We can implement an SPF record for you now. Just open a ticket and the techs can take care of it. If you wish you can visit http://spf.pobox.com and use their wizard and it will generate the record for you. If you do this just paste that record in the ticket you open and it will greatly speed up the time we can get your record in place.

[lloyd_borrett]

I figured that if I could understand what I should be asking for it would help you guys. But I don't.

That's why I suggested that if you provide us all with an explanation and some examples, i.e. some useful guidelines, we would be able to help you to help us.

Best Regards, Lloyd.

[JonathanB]

If you wish you can visit http://spf.pobox.com and use their wizard and it will generate the record for you. If you do this just paste that record in the ticket you open and it will greatly speed up the time we can get your record in place.

I'm with Lloyd. I started to use the wizard at the above site and I wasn't sure how to answer some of the questions. Some guidelines and/or examples from JagPC would be nice.

[JPC-Masood]

For shared hosting, if your domain is hosted on the main server shared IP i.e. you do not have a unique IP for your account, your SPF record will be

"v=spf1 a ~all"

or you can have it as "v=spf1 a:servername.nocdirect.com ~all"

And if your domain is hosted on a unique IP, your SPF record will be

"v=spf1 a:servername.nocdirect.com ~all"

where servername.nocdirect.com is your hosting server. You can find the name of your server from your control panel under Account Information -> Machine.

For vps / dedicated servers, you can use the same method by using IPs, say your server/vps main IP is 1.2.3.4, your SPF record will be

"v=spf1 ip4:1.2.3.4 ~all"

Or if you point a hostname to your server/vps main IP, you can use that as well and then your spf record will be

"v=spf1 a:your.server.hostname ~all"

If you send emails from any other server other than your hosting server, you will need to visit http://openspf.org and create the SPF record accordingly.

[Vin DSL]

If you wish you can visit http://spf.pobox.com and use their wizard and it will generate the record for you...

This is Paul Harvey. You may have heard about the Wizard, but did you know there was actually a Tester too? Now, for the rest of the story...

http://www.dnsstuff.com/pages/spf.htm

Good day!

[JonathanB]

Here is an example with all the disclaimers...

Thanks Masood! Yet another example of the excellent support here.

[lloyd_borrett]

Thanks, Masood,

It's taken me a while for me to get back to following through on this. I thought I'd first try with what I believe is my least complicated pair of domain names.

Unfortunately, I still couldn't properly answer questions 4 and 5 based on your explanation. You're assuming a level of understanding about DNS that I simply don't have.

So I've put what I do know into a support ticket and we'll see what happens.

Best Regards, Lloyd.

[Vin DSL]

Is this place the best, or what???

Hello,
Would you please add the following SPF record to my multi-hosted domain (vindsl.com) mail account?

vindsl.com. IN TXT "v=spf1 a mx include:nocdirect.com ~all"

Regards,
VinDSL

A customer service representative has begun working on this issue.

Hi,

I have added the SPF record for your multihosted domain "vindsl.com". Please check at your end to confirm.

Works fine! Thank you!

You guys rock, as usual!!!

Regards,
VinDSL

[Weevil]

vindsl.com. IN TXT "v=spf1 a mx include:nocdirect.com ~all"

So, Vin... does this syntax work for any multihosted domain? In other words, can I just steal this and substitute my main domain name and open my ticket?

[Vin DSL]

So, Vin... does this syntax work for any multihosted domain? In other words, can I just steal this and substitute my main domain name and open my ticket?

Yeah, it should... as long as you're SENDING all your mail through JagPC servers...

[Gwaihir]

Fifth Question: nocdirect.com

Could mail from jaguarpc.com originate through
servers belonging to some other domain?
If you send mail through your ISP's servers, and the ISP has published an SPF record, name the ISP here.

Here you would definitely need to use "nocdirect.com" that is the domain name used for server hostnames for all shared hosting servers. [This is for shared hosting clients, vps/dedicated server clients may need to use their server/vps hostname]

But it seems you guys haven't published an SPF record for nocdirect.com yet..


My domains only send from (or via) the shared server I'm on though. So, I how about I refer to it directly:

mydomain.com IN TXT "v=spf1 mx a:servername.nocdirect.com ~all"

(I left the mx in, hoping that this will happen some day .)

[Weevil]

Yeah, it should... as long as you're SENDING all your mail through JagPC servers...

Sent it in, it's in place. All is well with the world. Thanks, Vin.

[JPC-Masood]

But it seems you guys haven't published an SPF record for nocdirect.com yet..

We do not send email from "nocdirect.com" domain.

[Gwaihir]

No, but we do.

It's an include; include:nocdirect.com doesn't define any SPF record by itself, but it includes whatever one you guys have up for nocdirect.com. Without proper SPF record for nocdirect.com in place, that include is meaningless and folk using the record as posted by Vin are "~all" flagging all their e-mail as suspicious, rather than the opposite.

I'm afraid you'll have to define a record for nocdirect.com with the full list of hostnames (a:servername.nocdirect.com) in it (and keep it up to date), unless you want to resort to the fakeable ptr way.